# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1858_S196
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

196 Martin Chemnitz on Extreme Unction.

...symbol of anointing with oil, not because either the oil itself, or
the act of anointing, had or brought any power or efficacy toward
healing — for that was miraculous — still less toward the forgiveness
of sins, which James ascribes to the prayer of faith; but because it
was at that time a well-known thing, from the Old Testament, that oil
signified heavenly gifts. They therefore used the anointing with oil in
connection with the gift of healing, so that the outward symbol itself
might remind people that those healings did not come to them in a
human or magical way, but were heavenly gifts, from divine power and
working. Secondly, because oil in Holy Scripture signifies the
spiritual benefits of God, they therefore used the anointing with oil
in connection with the gift of healing, in order to give, through that
symbol, the reminder that those who were healed must not cling to
those bodily benefits, but must lift up their hearts to recognize,
seek, and accept the spiritual benefits of Christ the Mediator, to
which they were invited and led by those bodily benefits. Thirdly, oil
was, in those regions, held in especially high regard and in daily
use, not only for nourishment and refreshment, 2 Kings 4:2 and Ps.
104:15, but also for healings, Isa. 1:6, Ezek. 16:13, Luke 10:34. Just
as, then, Isaiah (37:21) took figs to heal Hezekiah's sore, so the
apostles, in order that it might not seem as though they were
practicing magic, used oil in their healings — which, however, far
surpassed the natural power and efficacy of oil, for they were
miracles. And so, indeed, now that that gift of healing has ceased,
the passage in James could be applied in a godly and useful way to the
use of medicines in the sicknesses of Christians: namely, that one
should first remind the sick of the cause of their sickness, that is,
that they should learn to recognize their sins, be reconciled with God
through faith, and commend their health to God through prayer; and
then they might use medicines in a godly way, with their own calling
upon the name of the Lord, joined with the common prayer. The papal
extreme unction, therefore, is by no means instituted or made known in
those passages by the fact that Mark and James say the apostles
anointed the sick with oil.

To this is added that one reads nothing of this sacrament for the
dying in the true and pure antiquity. Among the ancients one finds
descriptions of visitations of the sick; one finds accounts of how
many devout people fell blessedly asleep in the Lord; one finds
ancient church laws as to what means those departing from this world
were to be equipped with, and with what provision for the journey they
were to be furnished, so that they, as Dionysius of Corinth says
(Eusebius, Church History, Book 1, ch. 44), might depart hence full of
good hope; in connection with this, to be sure, comfort by God's word,
faith, prayer, absolution, and the communion of the body and blood of
Christ are listed and named; but of this nothing is mentioned, that it